By Dayo Johnson

AKURE—THE former candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in Ondo State, Chief Olusola Ebiseni, yesterday, lashed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for disqualifying him from the November 16 governorship election less than 24 hours to the election.

Ebiseni’s name and that of his deputy, Mr Dayo Awude were removed less than 24 hours to the November 16 governorship election in the state.

INEC said that their names were removed on the alleged order of the Court of Appeal.

Ebiseni’s name was subsequently replaced by Dr Ayo Olorunfemi.

But reacting to the development, Ebiseni, in a statement, argued that the action of the electoral umpire was to weaken the opposition.

He said: “Contrary to the claims in some uninformed quarters, the issue of the validity of our candidacy midwife by Ayo Olorunfemi and executed by the Abure-led National Working Committee was not raised by either the Party, INEC, or the Court.

It is also not correct that we were disqualified from contesting the election as no such prayers were before any court which is no fathers Christmas to have given reliefs not sought.

“Thus in its illegal resurrection of the dead candidacy of Olorunfemi following his irreversible withdrawal backed by affidavit, INEC was only playing its part in a national orchestra of electoral gangsterism
“The fact that INEC which took more than one month to open its portal to upload our names and defiantly refused to allow our agents’ names uploaded would, within less than 48 hours, wrongly interpret and enforce against us few hours to the election a judgment details of which was not read in the open court and copy of which it has not been served.

“The omission by INEC to upload my name and that of my running mate, Mr Adedayo Awude, as the new candidates of the Party consequent upon the irreversible withdrawal by the initial placeholder candidates was the cause of action in the Originating Summons filed by our counsel of Dr O.J Onoja, SAN, and Associates on the 6th of August 2024 for an order of Court compelling the Commission to so do which the Federal High Court Abuja per Justice Emeka Nwite granted on the 27th September 2024.”

“We challenged the judgment by filing a Notice of Appeal to the Supreme Court, Motion for Stay of Execution, which were all served on INEC the following day on November 14.

“It was the same political voodoo that saw to our being excluded in the gubernatorial debate, an intellectual exercise by candidates to juxtapose and share our visions for the greater good of our state and people.”

He, however, declared that he had “set legal machinery in motion to vindicate his name against the libelous accusations by Olorunfemi in the media of the alleged forgery of his documents and signature.”